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“Hey Doc” Gives You Answers to Patients’ ACA Questions

Americans' physicians are their most trusted source for information on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new national poll, but that's not where they're getting their news.

TMA is about to change all of that, and not by turning your practice into ACA information-central.

Using a combination of video, the Internet, traditional news media, and social media outlets, TMA's "Hey Doc" project will provide answers to the most frequently asked questions about the new ACA insurance marketplaces directly to your patients. The project will also give member physicians monthly fact sheets to help answer those questions that come up as the ACA marketplaces begin accepting applications on Oct. 1, 2013. The ACA's requirement that all Americans have health insurance (the "individual mandate") kicks in Jan. 1, 2014.

"Our goal is to position TMA and Texas physicians as caring sources of credible information within the maelstrom of confusion surrounding the ACA marketplace rollout," said Steve Levine, TMA vice president for communications.

In the meantime, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department awarded $67 million in grants to 105 organizations to be "navigators" to help consumers shop for and enroll in health plans through the marketplace. The eight Texas organizations that received almost $11 million in navigator grants are: